I liked when EA/Bioware did it inside of Dragon Age, as the vendor was just kicking it at your camp. It was clever...remains to be seen if this will be as clever. Hopefully EA will respond to inquiry I sent 'em.

This is probably nothing more than the assets for the latest DLC patch. Thing is, if your friends were to download the latest DLC and you didn't, without the assets you wouldn't be able to play with them. Paying for the DLC itself probably results in an unlock granting you access to the content. EA did the same thing with Burnout Paradise. Even if you didn't buy any of the DLC you needed the assets on your system so that you could see the vehicles your friends may have picked up.

I think NFS Shift is the most underrated racing game on the current-gen consoles. It handles well (arcade-y and easy for beginners in the casual mode, but nicely responsive in pro mode), it looks pretty good, it's fun, the progression through career mode is nicely balanced... and EA practically killed *all* enthusiasm for it by releasing that P.O.S. demo for the PC, which was buggy as He11 -- even after the "patched" PC demo was re-released. Considering the bargain price you can now pick up the console version for, it's worth picking up, I think. The new update hasn't frozen on me yet, which is more than I can say for Heavy Rain, after its latest update.